In the conventional game of darts, a player throws the darts at the dart board target and then must walk to the board to count and record the score and to retrieve the darts before returning to the toe line. Having a player standing near a target board presents a potentially hazardous situation, particularly in an environment where several games are being played simultaneously, for example in a tournament or recreational environment. A player may be struck by an errantly thrown projectile while in the process of retrieving darts.
Moreover, player mobility that is required when the game is set up in the conventional manner does, to a great extent, prevent persons who are visually and or physically challenged from participating in the pleasant pastime of the game.
In other forms of recreation involving a target and projectiles thrown or shot against it, devices have been proposed for bringing a target back to a player/shooter to determine accuracy and score or to indicate a score electronically.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,857, Beall et al, of Dec. 14th, 1990 discloses an electronic dart game for use by visually challenged persons. An electronic processor is associated with the face of the dart target or board so as to detect a segment of the target hit by a projectile and to determine the value of the segment that has been hit. An audible announcing device responds to the processor for audibly announcing sufficient information to direct and score the game. This patent also discloses a roll-out mat to provide an integral start or throwing line to assist positioning of the player.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,726 Sep. 20, 1977, LeFebvre, discloses a sighting device for use by visually challenged people for sighting a projectile such as an arrow from a bow and arrow combination. Signal generators are incorporated to produce signals when the weapon is in the desired position.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,614,102 Nikoden, Sr., Oct. 19, 1971 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,322 May 9, 1978, Nikoden, Jr. disclose target control systems incorporating target carriers mounted for longitudinal movement along a track. In the latter patent, bullet deflection plates are suspended from the ceiling of a shooting range beneath the carrier rail to protect the upper carriage portion of the carrier.
Canadian Patent 883,432 Oct. 12, 1971 Gretzky discloses an apparatus for returning shot arrows from the target area back to the shooter.
Canadian Patent 897,738 Apr. 11, 1972 Dragone et al shows an arrow storage quiver.